LONG BLOG

Welcome back to the write stuff! A weekly biweekly whenever look at how the blogs you've posted match up from an objective standpoint. I've come to the conclusion that the blogs I take into account can only be the blogs I actually have time to read. There will certainly be a lot of Wednesday stuff, but there will be a few blogs from a few days ago because I actually took the time to read them. Unless you have a suggestion via PM, this is just me versus he world here.

This week's tip of the week is balance. On the internet, people can only make assumptions about you. We don't know you personally, despite whatever history of blogs you've made. Where tone is about how you say it, balance is more about the content you can present toward your argument.

A lot of topics these past few days ask why gay gamers need to seclude themselves more from the main community. But what about asking why not? Many commenters and blogs think it's weird to further splinter off. Other may wonder why even raising your voice at all? Jim asks why not? The LBGT community has been separated enough already as it is. Might as well make a comfortable place for them to be themselves.

Perhaps you want to really push your particular argument, so why present both sides of the argument? Admittedly, this is more of a news thing while blogs fall within the realm of opinion. But if you're going to put your opinion out there, wasn't your plan to present something of use to the community to discuss? Why make it inflammatory?

Balance helps makes your argument easier to swallow. You want to be convincing, right? Why immediately antagonize your audience to yourself right off the bat?

If you're typing angry, hot off a discussion, take a tip from people who've taken a look at internet culture. Just take in a deep breath and wait 25 minutes to see how you feel later before hitting the publish button.

Sometimes, italics is like a superpower. It can be used well or abused for evil purposes. Hbomb however uses the power of italics responsibly, using it to put focus on titles (which is proper style formatting!) and even listing directors and premier dates! And of course it's held together with nicely spaced paragraphs and the occasional picture. It's hard to strike a good balance of pictures, not to mention properly sized images, but Hbomb puts it all together in an uncanny way.

Glowbear has a genuinely good blog about the bad things games amplify within our dark little hearts. Who really wants to come to the realization that they're on a power trip over defenseless creatures while playing Pokemon? But near the later parts of the blog, it becomes apparent that Glowbear hotlinked all her images, for better or worse. Hotlinking images retains their dimensions, whether they fit or not. While small pictures seem quaint, huge pictures just get cut off completely and not only is it jarring but it also leaves me wondering if the image would've worked if it was resized? Of course, we'll never know now that half of it is jutting out of frame.

At it's core, Bibbly is only getting something off his chest and there's nothing wrong with his argument. There are a lot of things wrong in today's news headlines and there are a lot of contradictions. But I don't think this is the way to go about discussing the issue, even if it was meant in satire or humor.

I came to realize myself that both his and sheppy's blogs are rather antagonistic. But the thing is, I like sheppy's by blog by comparison because he goes through his ideas thoughtfully and without jamming it down our thoughts. Sheppy goes out of his way to set the stage for his points by framing it with other references and then put down his two cents. Bibbly's on the other hand goes straight to 60 MPH, calling out specific grievances without easing us into his argument, cursing like a drunk sailor all the way down.

In fact, I'm a tired Strider. I didn't want to write anything today, let alone the Write Stuff. But seeing Bibbly's two blogs stretched over the topics in such an antagonizing way made me get off my lazy ass and put my view on the Write Stuff up. This week's Write Stuff even gave me a new, begrudging respect for sheppy. Though sheppy's stuff can be inflammatory, it's at least thoughtful.